New Seller Questions
Hi!
I'm new here. I haven't set up shop yet but will soon. My Dad agreed to sell off his old stamp collection and I'm going to be taking care of that for him.
What are the best online resources for researching stamps?
How does selling on HipStamp compare to selling in other places?
Thanks!
I'm new here. I haven't set up shop yet but will soon. My Dad agreed to sell off his old stamp collection and I'm going to be taking care of that for him.
What are the best online resources for researching stamps?
How does selling on HipStamp compare to selling in other places?
Thanks!
Comments
Any other advice?
HipStamp is a good place to start. The search feature, and the Catalog (on menu at bottom) can give you some context and market values.
www.stampworld.com and www.stamp-collecting-world.com have huge listings and have good search tools. The latter has good descriptions of US stamps.
Big dealer sites, like Mystic and Kenmore, have good educational resources and thick, free catalogs they'd love to send you.
Did the original collector share any goals or other tidbits?
(Amateur comments worth the price you paid for them. Your mileage may vary.)
I couldnt find any recent information on a club near me unfortunately.
Do you find that reasearching individual stamps takes a long time and is there a way to quickly identify items?
Here's his link. Also from what I am getting in orders there is not really any specific country or topic that is out selling any others.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/sixth-and-durian
Sixth,
Just a couple of tips on your listing titles to help with the search
First the country name is actually Kenya Uganda Tanganyika. Even on the US it's better if you list the country name at the beginning of the tile, then cat number, then any other info you wish to add to the title. (That's the best way they will come up in some searches.) Adding MNH, Unused, Used MOG Unused Hinged etc should also be in the title, those are descriptors that will help the buyers locate your items better. Covers should also have cover added to the title.
Those are some of the simple things you can do to make your listings a bit better.
Just another suggestion before going wild with your listings you may want to check out a number of the more successful sellers to see how they are doing things and then take those things would work for you and apply it to your store.
On your KUT stamp it is a good idea to include in the description WHY this stamp is 74d. Is it a perf 14? Also, you're making a lot of work for yourself with that description. Appears unhinged?? - wouldn't use that term for a used stamp - perhaps it was soaked.
You may also want to reconsider your shipping charges because there are 2 potential problems. The first is your shipping at this time is only figured for zones 1 and 2, it you get a number of orders from any other zones your going to have to eat the extra postage charge. Packages to zone 5 (For me that the largest group where their sent and that's at $4.25 per package, if you ship to zones 8 and 9 it's $4.45 per package.)
Second if you are selling mostly lower value stamps most buyers will not buy from you, they will see the charge as being excessive for the value of the items being sent. And should they complete a purchase and don't catch the charge before they pay, they are not going happy about it. You will be better off building in a little bit elsewhere to cover the minimal amount of lost shipments. (The amount of lost shipments I have had is way less than 1 % and that is figuring about 300 or so shipments per month. And I can go months without a single shipment lost.)
https://help.hipecommerce.com/support/solutions/articles/14000112965-international-shipping-costs-from-the-us
It's really should be under both selling and buying, but at this time it's only under buying. So unless you know that it may be a bit tougher to find.